The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for processing stacks of bags and in particular a packaging machine or an apparatus or a device assigned to a packaging machine. The apparatus may serve to separate the bags of a stack of bags. The apparatus may furthermore also open the separated bags, append them to a filling spout, and optionally fill the bags with bulk material, close them and convey them off.
A great variety of processing apparatuses for open-mouth bags have been disclosed in the prior art. Thus there are for example packaging machines referred to as Form-Fill-Seal machines (FFS packaging machines) which manufactures the bags required from a tube stock on the machine which are subsequently filled in the machine. There are also packaging machines where stacks of prefabricated open-mouth bags are fed to the packaging machine. In these packaging machines for filling prefabricated open-mouth bags the bags must first be separated from the stack of bags before an open-mouth bag can be appended to the filling spout of the packaging machine, and filled.
Various apparatuses and devices for separating open-mouth bags from a stack of bags have been disclosed. For example AT 404 117 B discloses a device for feeding a separated open-mouth bag. A stack of open-mouth bags is stocked in a magazine. The suction heads of an unloading device grip and lift the closed bag bottom of the topmost open-mouth bag. The bag hangs downwardly off the suction heads and with its open end is still supported on the stack of bags. Thereafter a chain grate travelling around the magazine over diverting rollers is driven and displaced beneath the lifted bag such that the entire bag is lifted and placed on the grate area of the chain grate. The open-mouth bag is thus separated and, due to the chain grate rotating further, it can be transferred to an adjacent conveying device comprising multiple rotating belts. The conveying device transfers the separated open-mouth bag to another conveying device positioned downstream which during the further movement opens the bag and transfers it to a placement device which appends the opened open-mouth bag to a filling spout.
This prior art operates basically satisfactorily. By means of a chain grate traveling beneath an open-mouth bag that is lifted by its bottom end and is subsequently transferred to a conveying device and thereafter to another conveying device, a dependable separation of open-mouth bags from a stack of bags can be achieved.
The drawback of the known system is the high space requirement since the magazine with the chain grate traveling around the magazine, the conveying device and the further conveying device and the downstream placement device are all large and are furthermore positioned in line and thus require considerable space.